AV¶ÌÊÓƵ

Doctors with a federal medical diploma from the AV¶ÌÊÓƵ

• Provide the Students' secretariat of the Faculty of medicine with a declaration on behalf of the thesis director stating that the doctorate student is preparing a thesis under his direction. This declaration shall be validated by the secretariat;
• Apply for re-registration with the Admissions Department of the online platform

Doctors with a federal medical diploma from another Swiss university

• Provide the Students' secretariat of the Faculty of medicine with:
  • a declaration on behalf of the thesis director stating that the doctorate student is preparing a thesis under his direction. This declaration shall be validated by the secretariat;
  • an updated curriculum vitae;
  • a copy of the second and third parts of the final exam results;
  • a copy of the diploma in medicine.
• Apply for re-registration on the Admissions Service website by clicking on the following link:

Register at UNIGE

Doctors who have obtained their qualifications in an EU country under current bilateral agreements

• Doctors working in clinical practice while preparing for their doctorate or doctors who have direct contact with patients as part of their doctorate must apply to the Federal Office of Public Health for equivalence of their medical degree:
  • Office fédéral de la santé publique () - Secretariat – Section Formation universitaire – Schwarzenburgstrasse 157 | 3003 Berne | Suisse | - Phone +41 31 322 9483
• Provide the Students' secretariat of the Faculty of medicine with:
  • the OFSP declaration of equivalence of their diploma of medicine;
  • a declaration on behalf of the thesis director stating that the doctorate student is preparing a thesis under his direction;
  • an updated curriculum vitae.
• Apply for registration with the Admissions Department of the online platform

Doctors who obtained their degree in a country that is not part of the European Union or not covered by bilateral agreements

• Doctors working in clinical practice while preparing for their doctorate, or doctors who have direct contact with patients as part of their doctorate, must apply for registration in the Federal Register of Medical Professions: 
• Provide the Students' secretariat of the Faculty of medicine with:
  • a declaration on behalf of the thesis director stating that the doctorate student is preparing a thesis under his direction;
  • an updated curriculum vitae;
  • the original copy of the diploma of medicine;
  • a copy of the diploma of medicine with a certified translation (if the original language is neither French, German or English);
  • a description of the subject matters studied during each year of study;
  • a certified copy of all results obtained during the course of studies and medical exams.
  • certificate of registration in the federal register of medical professions (if clinical activity or contact with patients, see above)
• On the basis of these documents and after decision of the Admission and Equivalences Commission, the Students' Secretariat will establish a certification of authenticity of the medical diploma and will validate the declaration on behalf of the thesis director.
• Apply for registration with the Admissions Department of the online platform

Physicians holding a federal medical diploma or an equivalent degree are allowed to register as doctorate students in order to obtain a medical doctorate. They must have found beforehand a thesis director by submitting their request directly to the department or service where they wish to undertake their doctorate thesis.

It is mandatory for the doctorate student to be registered within a doctorate programme during the whole thesis period for a maximum of 10 semesters (art. 18 of the AV¶ÌÊÓƵ regulation).

Director of f thesis

• A thesis is undertaken within a department or a university centre, under the supervision of a thesis director, member of the teaching staff (ordinary professor, associate professor, titulary professor, assistant professor).
• The following members of the teaching and research staff: lecturer, privat-docent and MER may be thesis supervisors, but with co-supervision by a professor.
• Honorary professors, provided that the thesis began before their retirement, may be listed as co-directors with another active professor who is the director or co-director when the thesis is submitted.
• Any change of thesis director must be reported to the Students' secretariat.

Subject of thesis

• The choice of the thesis subject is agreed upon between the doctorate student and the thesis director.
• The doctorate registration is confirmed only once the director has submitted the Students' secretariat the document certifying his academic responsibility with regard to the thesis work.
• Any change of subject of the thesis must be reported to the Students' secretariat.

Writing the thesis

The thesis is written either in French or in English. In the case of English, the thesis must include a summary as well as an introduction of approximately ten pages in French. The text on the cover page must also be in French.

Whatever the choice of language, the thesis will be examined on the grounds of a typed A4 format text that should contain:

• a table of contents;
• a summary in French;
• a bibliography that includes the following directives. All references must contain: the name and initials of all the authors, the title of the journal, the number, the year, the number of the first and the last page if it concerns a chapter, the name of the publishing house, the city and year of publication if it concerns a book;
• the thesis report established and signed by the thesis director;
• the summary of 150 words on an ad hoc form, with the AV¶ÌÊÓƵ header (see Appendix 1), will have to have the signature of the doctorate student as well as the thesis director. This summary will be used by the AV¶ÌÊÓƵ for the publication of an 'Annotated list of doctorate thesis'.

Cover page of thesis

• Must include (in Fench) in the top left hand corner of the page 'Université de Genève', in the top right hand corner 'Faculté de médecine' and below, the name of the department and the division within which the thesis was undertaken and the mention 'thèse effectuée sous la responsabilité de ..." (thesis undertaken under the responsibility of ..." (indicate in full wording the title, name and surname of the head of thesis (see Appendix 2);
• Must be mentioned your usual name(s) before your surname. Married doctorate students must include their maiden name if they were registered at the university under that name;
• Must be mentioned the name of the state or place of origin under the surname. Swiss citizens will include the name of their commune of origine, followed by the name of the canton in brackets.

Appendix 2

Preparing a thesis on the basis of original publications

• One or a group of original publications in journals that have an editorial policy as well as an international distribution can constitute the basis of a doctorate.
• In principle, the doctorate student must be the first author of such publications, thereby attesting his/her main role in the planning of the study, data collection and/or data interpretation. Should the occasion arise, the thesis director must certify the proportion of work actually achieved by the student if he/she is no the first author.
• With regards to the use of articles published in journals with a less wide distribution and/or a limited impact factor, the student will seek to obtain preliminary authorisation from the person in charge of theses.
• In all cases, such publications will be accompanied by an introductory text aiming to present them in a coherent manner and to justify the pertinence of their inclusion.
• Developments that do not appear in the original publications may be included in the thesis.

Documents required to submit the thesis

• One electronic version by e-mail or USB key
• thesis director's report
• the form for depositing the thesis in the open archive, signed by the doctoral candidate and the thesis director (Appendix 1)
• the cover page (Appendix 2)
• the signed checklist (Appendix 3)

Appendix 3

Evaluation of thesis

Each thesis is assessed in the following manner :

• by the director of thesis who will provide a written report on the content and value of the presented work;
• by two professors of the Faculty of medicine, designed by the person in charge of theses, according to their specific expertise and who will provide a written report pertaining the content and value of the present work. These two reporters may, if necessary, ask for modifications of form and/or of content in the thesis manuscript.

Corrections of thesis

• If corrections are needed after thesis evaluation, the person in charge of coordinating theses shall inform the doctorate student in writing and as soon as possible.
• The thesis, once corrected, will be returned to the person in charge of theses, together with a letter mentioning the corrections and, if such is the case, why they could not be made. After having checked the corrections, the person in charge of theses will submit the corrected manuscript to the Dean of the Faculty in order to obtain imprimatur.

Imprimatur

• Imprimatur is granted by the Dean of the Faculty of medicine.
• The imprimatur mentions the thesis number and authorises the doctoral student to deposit the thesis in the .

Thesis number

• The thesis number is mentioned on the imprimatur and must be reported on the cover page within the designed area.

Submission of thesis for acceptance

• Electronic version of the thesis
• A 150-word summary
• The report of the thesis director

must be submitted to the Students' secretariat.

Formatting and final printing of the thesis

The doctorate student will be informed by e-mail of the acceptance of the thesis. He/she shall receive the imprematur that specifies the thesis number.

The doctorate student will include on the cover page the following indications :

• the number of the thesis (see Appendix 2);
• the place of edition and the date of publication (see Appendix 2).

Should the thesis lead to a publication, the reference of this publication must be mentioned at the bottom on the back of the cover page.

The imprimatur must be inserted after the cover page and before the beginning of the thesis

How to deposit your thesis in "Archive ouverte" and attribution of the doctor title

The "Diplôme de doctorat" is awarded by the AV¶ÌÊÓƵ (Service des diplômes - Phone +41 22 379 77 44). It will be sent to the "Doctor" by registered post, once the required theses have been deposited with the UNIGE "Archive ouverte".

You may contact the library of the Faculty of medicine:
archive-ouverte-theses(at)unige.ch - Phone. +41 22 379 92 02

You may consult on-line theses on the Web at the following addresses:

• /biblio/aou/en/theses/info/

Right to publish

Independently of the statutory deposit in , doctorate students can publish under their own responsibility their work in any form they wants.

In this case, any mention regarding the AV¶ÌÊÓƵ will be taken out of the publication. You can consult theses online at